Bulldozer (Payday 2)
The Bulldozer is a special unit with extremely heavy armor. Similar to its previous counterpart, the Bulldozer is near-indestructible except for its faceplate, as they possess 5,500 health (9,350 on Death Wish). Bulldozers take 22.92x damage from headshots (17.19x on Death Wish). For Update #24, a new variation of the Bulldozer was introduced solely for the Death Wish difficulty. This variation has a digital camouflage uniform with a faceplate decorated with a skull. He wields a KSP capable of very high damage output. Behavior Unlike PAYDAY: The Heist, Bulldozers hesitate to engage in a firefight immediately. Upon deployment, they will approach a player, attack, and camp around the last location the player was seen. This allows the player a short moment to take cover or run around a corner to reload, heal, and regroup with others. Bulldozers usually tend to alternate between aggressive, close-quartered engagements and defensive tactical withdrawal. However, they have been known to aggressively rush the player until they're taken down. They are especially dangerous in pairs, and frequently spawn in pairs on higher difficulties. Like all specials, they have their own set of tells or warning signs; the Bulldozers have a loud, energetic voice, and love to mock players while engaging or incapacitating them. Even if you can't make out what they're actually saying, observant players should keep an ear open at all times. For a complete list of their quotes, refer to this video link. They also have unique, heavy footstep sounds, though these can be hard to hear over general combat sound. Finally, Bulldozers have one unique indicator of their presence that no other special possesses; when caught in the radius of an explosive, there will be a loud metallic clanging sound. No other unit has a unique, nonverbal audio response to taking damage from a grenade. Because of their unpredictable behavior, Bulldozers can be challenging to even experienced players. They may suddenly break off an engagement and hide around a corner, or stand around in the open doing nothing before suddenly charging. Currently there are four different variants of the Bulldozer, three of which are encountered during normal gameplay. Each is more dangerous than the last. *The Green Bulldozer - Wielding a Reinfeld 880 pump action shotgun, these bulldozers are the basic and form the staple of the Bulldozer. They are worthy opponents but also the weakest Bulldozer variant, especially due to the Reinfeld's long reload time that leaves the Bulldozer open to counterattacks. Green Bulldozers are the most damaging of the two basic types as their Reinfeld is very powerful, but it's balanced out by the weapon's low rate of fire and short effective range. *The Black Bulldozer - Wielding an IZHMA 12G semi-automatic shotgun, these Bulldozers are more dangerous than the more common green variant and can easily pin down heisters thanks to their range and firepower. Despite common misconceptions, however, this variant possesses no more health than a regular green bulldozer. They can be identified by their rather pronounced neck gorget. Compared to Green Bulldozers, the Black variant has slightly less firepower - but a much greater ammo capacity and much higher rate of fire, and greater effectiveness over long range. *The Elite Bulldozer - Wielding a KSP Light Machine Gun and wearing urban camo armor, it only appears on Death Wish difficulty or as a semi-random spawn in the Hoxton Breakout heist on Overkill mode, and represents the most powerful single Police Unit in the game. They have incredible health and can down a heister in seconds with sustained LMG fire. They also boast a generous ammo capacity, but a lengthy reload time. This version is also known as the GenSec Bulldozer or Skulldozer. *The Headless Bulldozer - This Bulldozer was available only during the Halloween Update, and was similar to the Black Bulldozer in that they were armed with IZHMA 12G shotguns. This enemy was hard to kill because its head was removed , which is a Bulldozers weak spot. They also have a sword on their backs. Strategy Though it looks sturdy and bullet-resistant at first glance, the EOD suit worn by Bulldozers can be penetrated and damaged by gunfire (unlike the Maximum Force Responder's vest). However, under most circumstances this is not a terribly effective way to attack a Bulldozer due their extremely high health - though see below for some circumstances where this strategy can work. The faceplate is the most common point of attack; once shot off it allows you to take advantage of the Bulldozer's substantial headshot damage multiplier. After a Bulldozer is spotted, players should concentrate fire on the faceplate and attack one Bulldozer at a time, if possible. Termination of a Bulldozer is much easier with teamwork. However, their Halloween counterpart, the headless Bulldozer, lacks the head hitbox. This forces the crew to shoot their durable armor (or use trip mines). Bulldozers have four visual appearances which can tell you at a glance how close they are to going down. They start with a solid black face-shield covering their faceplate. When it gets shot off, the suit's transparent faceplate is exposed. After taking enough damage, the clear faceplate cracks. Taking more damage will shatter it, exposing the Bulldozer's now-defenseless face, at which point hits to the head will quickly kill it. Each change seems to correspond to ~25% of a Bulldozer's overall durability. It should be noted that Bulldozers can be killed with body shots, but given that they possess 5500 health (9350 on Deathwish) it will take an extremely long time and a lot of ammo compared to the standard procedure of destroying their faceplates and aiming for headshots, unless using the Thanatos rifle. Bulldozers are surprisingly fast despite their heavy EOD suits, and can easily keep up with an escaping heister while gunning him down with heavy firepower. They can even jump 10ft high, climb walls, and surprise heisters by appearing suddenly from a window on the second floor of a building. It is commonly advised to gang up on a lone bulldozer to confuse him over which target to pursue, as he only pursues the nearest player; the bulldozer may break pursuit if someone else attracts his ire. However, caution should also be used if attempting to surround and confuse a Bulldozer, as making him constantly change direction will make it difficult to land any shots on his faceplate. Assault Rifles Because of their versatility, assault rifles are reasonably effective against Bulldozers at all ranges, although their generally-mediocre damage per second ratings can make them somewhat less effective at close range (but see below for exceptions). The range of engagement largely dictates firing mode and tactics - at longer ranges, all rifles are best off using precise semi-automatic fire or short bursts (depending on recoil), with modifications and skills being less of a factor. In closer engagements, tactics will be dictated more by the rifle and the user's skills. Lower-powered rifles may wish to stick to firing bursts from cover (unless they have particularly high rates of fire) or let another teammate finish the job. Higher powered rifles can engage cautiously or recklessly depending on user preference - though risky, treating the rifle like an LMG and going for a point-blank kill can end a Bulldozer's rampage swiftly and effectively. For obvious reasons, this tactic should only be used against Green or Black Bulldozers - the GenSec Elite Bulldozer is best engaged from as far away as possible. Notably, there are five main exceptions to the mediocre DPS situation that most assault rifles find themselves mired in; the M308, the Eagle Heavy, the Falcon, the Gewehr 3, and the AMR-16 are all particularly devastating against Bulldozers; any one of them can easily kill one of the basic types of Bulldozer within the space of 1-2 magazines depending on user skills and weapon modifications. On top of this, they remain very effective against Bulldozers at longer ranges if used in a high-accuracy configuration, and are all effective at dispatching the tougher opponents faced on Overkill (such as Maximum Force Responders and other special enemies). The CAR-4, Gecko 7.62, and Clarion also deserve special mention; all can attain quite respectable damage levels. The CAR-4's low fire rate can be a liability, but also means that its recoil is easy to compensate for, whilst the Gecko has a much higher rate of fire and thus may prove more effective. Finally, the Clarion's 1000 RPM allows close-range mag-dumping; whilst this may require skills to increase the weapon's stability (as it has few mods that help in that regard), the sheer rate of fire allows the magazine to be emptied in record time - which can very easily wreck a Bulldozer thanks to the Clarion's ability to also reach 40+ damage. Shotguns Even at shorter ranges (before the damage starts falling off at 7-10 meters), most shotguns are not terribly effective against bulldozers due to their low damage per second ratings. Most shotguns' low fire rate or low damage and small magazine size means the Bulldozer will usually out-shoot the player in a close range match, though, using the Enforcer's "Shotgun Impact" and "Overkill" skills can turn this around, either by increasing the damage of weaker shotguns (such as the IZHMA 12G or Street Sweeper) to more useful levels, or by increasing the damage of the slower-firing shotguns to the point they require only a single shot to break through the Bulldozer's faceplates. Additionally, with the new enhanced ammunition from the Gage Shotgun DLC, shotguns can now be made more effective against Bulldozers by using 000 Buckshot ammunition or slug ammunition to greatly boost their base damage. Combining this with the enforcer's aced "Shotgun Impact" skill allows players to easily shred through a bulldozer's faceplate at close range. The Street Sweeper with 000 Buckshot is extremely effective against Bulldozers thanks to its high capacity, rate of fire, and controllable recoil - even without Overkill active, it should possess just enough firepower to rapidly smash through the faceplate. If the entire drum can be landed on the dozer's faceplates, one or two more followup shots should be enough to finish them off. A Shotgun equipped with HE shells can be fired at the Bulldozer or underneath them, and the shot will stun the Bulldozer, as if a grenade went off by them. This can allow other players to quickly swarm and pelt the Bulldozer's faceplates without sustaining serious retaliation damage, provided the player with the HE Shotgun fires another shell at the Bulldozer once they recover from the previous shot. SMGs Submachine guns with large magazine size and high fire rate (Mark 10, CMP, Kobus 90, SpecOps) can quickly shred through Bulldozer's faceplate in close range matches due to high damage per second ratings when compared with other weapons. However, this requires the player to have a steady aim during the engagement. The high damage per second rating of these weapons can even allow players to kill Bulldozers with body shots in a reasonable amount of time if the player can maintain a steady ammo supply (such as when using the Bullet Storm skill). Slower-firing and low-damage SMGs, such as the Compact-5, should be avoided. Light Machine Guns Light machine guns mostly share the same traits with large magazine and high fire rate submachine guns when used against Bulldozers, although light machine guns are further handicapped by high recoil and slow reload speed. As such, player will need to take full advantage of light machine guns' high damage per second ratings by charging into close range and quickly shredding through Bulldozer's faceplate before being forced to reload. The KSP is most effective in this role thanks to its extremely high rate of fire. Sniper Rifles Sniper rifles are ideal for dealing with bulldozers at long range due to their accuracy and high per-shot damage output, but suffer at shorter ranges due to their low rate of fire and slow reload. Whilst the Thanatos can kill a Bulldozer with two body hits over any range (attempting to punch through the visor may have mixed results), the Rattlesnake and R93 must punch through the Dozer's faceplate and visor in order to achieve an effective kill, requiring a minimum of three hits. With the Angled sights, accurate shots can be placed even at closer ranges; however, at close range it is recommended to either take cover, call for help, or retreat, as a single missed shot at close range can easily result in being downed. Using high alpha-damage weapons The M308, Deagle and Bronco .44 are very effective against the Bulldozer at long range, as they are highly accurate and deal some of the highest damage per shot out of all weapons in Payday 2. It is inadvisable to use these weapons against Bulldozers at close range due to their low fire rate and small magazine size. With the release of the Gage Weapon Pack #01 DLC, however, the M308 can switch to automatic fire. As a result the M308 can either be used semi-auto to snipe at them from long range, or full-auto to tear through them at close range. Low caliber pistols and submachine guns without large magazine size and high fire rate are generally ineffective against the Bulldozer because of their short range and low damage per second, although skills such as Gunslinger, Equilibrium and SMG Specialist can make such weapons adequate against Bulldozer should the player decide to invest in a pistol- or submachine gun-oriented build. Bullet Storm The Bullet Storm skill, combined with an automatic weapon, can quickly end a Bulldozer under nearly any circumstances simply by deploying an ammo bag and hosing the Bulldozer's face. However, when employing this tactic, the player should make sure to have a fairly unobstructed view of the Bulldozer, and also plan ahead by not deploying the ammo bag in an inconvenient location. Player Dozer The common "Player Dozer" build is designed to beat Bulldozers at their own game, using a hybrid Enforcer/Technician build containing both offensive and defensive abilities specifically to counter the Bulldozer. Defensively, the Enforcer/Technician combination allows the player to take advantage of the Man of Iron and Bulletproof top-tier skills, granting a player over 270 points of armor, allowing them to take the straightforward approach of going face-to-face with a Bulldozer and kill it with repeated close-range shotgun headshots, capable of firing while sprinting on the approach (due to Man of Iron Ace) and sustaining fire due to Mag Plus. The Enforcer's shotgun skills provide the offensive firepower to down the Bulldozer rapidly. If desired, further benefits of the Enforcer's Overkill, Berserker , and Bullet Storm skills can be activated (by killing a nearby normal enemy, having lowered health prior to assaulting the dozer, and/or placing an ammo bag respectively), which massively increases the player's damage, easily shattering the Bulldozer's faceplate and killing it before it even manages to breach the player's thick armor. Note that this tactic is not as effective in Deathwish difficulty as Bulldozers have massively increased health, deal greatly increased damage and are easily capable of shredding the player's armor and health in a few seconds at close range. Unless the dozer is stunned or has his attention focused elsewhere, the player is very likely to be downed or have their health severely depleted while trying this tactic. Staying out in the open and going face-to-face with a bulldozer is generally an easy way to get downed in Death Wish. OVE9000 Saw The OVE9000 saw can saw through the Reinfield Bulldozer's (the Green one) faceplate in less than a second, making it an extremely effective option at close range. Even a non upgraded saw blade will allow the player to kill a Reinfield Bulldozer, an upgraded saw can take out two with less than 150 units of "ammo" (1 blade). With Berserker active, it will further decrease the kill time and ammo needed. This can be combined with the high-durability player build discussed above to allow the elimination of multiple Reinfield Bulldozers in short order with a high probability of success. Note that this is only effective towards the Reinfeld Bulldozers, as the other variants are both tougher and more capable of dealing lethal amounts of damage that can down a heister before his saw can kill them. ECM Feedback A timed ECM feedback can disable a Bulldozer for much of the feedback's duration. While it will not remove the faceplate or crack the visor, the ECM feedback can disable a bulldozer for about 20-30 seconds, not to mention any other nearby support it has (apart from cloakers). This gives players ample time to get up close and use whatever weapons or tripmines they have on the dozer with little fear of being downed. Whilst quite effective, it should be noted that this is not a failsafe or foolproof disabling tactic, as the stun effect is not guaranteed to last for the full duration of the feedback loop. Explosives Trip Mines Before Update #19, a single trip mine could instantly kill any Bulldozer within its blast radius. However, the update provided Bulldozers with a significant resistance to explosions, rendering trip mines less effective. Although, by carefully placing tripmines that they explode directly to a bulldozer's head, they can still inflict massive damage that would deplete a large portion of their health or outright kill them after taking only a a bit of damage. Tripmines will also stagger a Bulldozer for about 3 seconds regardless of where they hit, giving players a good window to do deliver the killing blow or get away. Another particularly effective tactic is to plan a Bulldozer's path, lure him to your location, then plant a mine on his projected his path once he is near. Once placed, quickly shoot the mine to set it off, which will most likely kill or severely damage the dozer. Do note that mine will do some damage to yourself and any other civilians nearby, so weigh the risks involved. Grenade Launcher Whilst it can be quite a challenging target to hit with a slow, physical projectile (compared to the 'hitscan' mechanics of the other ballistic weapons), the GL 40 can prove surprisingly effective against Bulldozers should it strike their faceplates, and is capable of knocking off around a third of their health in one hit. Direct or indirect hits should also momentarily stun the Bulldozer, providing any nearby teammates with a moment to switch to more effective weapons, reload, or fall back to a safer position. Frag Grenades Whilst it will not do very much damage, catching a Bulldozer in the radius of a grenade explosion (such as a grenade thrown near his feet) will stun him for around 2-4 seconds. This will give the players some time to get clear shots at his visor at point blank range, and can slow him down long enough for them to reload or switch to a more effective weapon. Shotgun Frag Rounds Similar to grenades above, shotgun frag rounds are somewhat poor for actually dealing damage to a Bulldozer (unless the faceplates can be hit reliably, which may be challenging when the target is staggering), but can very easily stun him (and any enemies that might be close to him) long enough for teammates to reload or switch to more appropriate weapons. Quotes Quotes spoken when a Bulldozer sees, engages and downs a heister. Achievements Trivia * The Bulldozer's suit resembles the EOD 9 Bomb Disposal Suit. ** The Bulldozer bomb suits, rather strangely, have protective gloves covering their hands. In reality, all bomb suits are specifically designed without gloves to maximize precision during disarmament of explosive devices. Thus the protective gloves might imply that the Bulldozer's suit was not intended for bomb disposal use. * The Bulldozer is one of the two special enemies that speak when they arrive on the field. The other enemy is the Taser. * The Bulldozer is the only special unit to reuse the voice clips of their PAYDAY: The Heist counterpart, in this case the old Bulldozer's death screams. * "Senpai-dozer", a Steam community joke Skulldozer is featured as a bobblehead in the Big Bank trailer, at 1:11. Unlike in-game Skulldozers, the "Senpai-dozer" is depicted wielding a pump-action shotgun. ** A box which, according to its label, contains 1500 of these bobbleheads can be seen in the Hotline Miami trailer, at 0:26 and 0:29. * The Man With the Golden Gun is currently the only achievement that explicitly requires the player to kill a specific subtype of enemy, which in this case is the Skulldozer. * The Black Bulldozer variant used to carry an IZHMA 12G shotgun equipped with a Skeletal Stock and cut drum magazine. It has since been replaced by a regular version of the weapon. * Despite being tougher and armed with a powerful LMG, the Skulldozer is arguably the easiest Bulldozer variant to take down, as he too suffers from the rapid ammo consumption of the KSP which forces him to reload very often. This coupled with the fact that the weapon is tediously slow to reload and the Skulldozer has to stand in one spot while doing so makes him one of the biggest (and most vulnerable) targets on the field. **Although do note that because of Death Wish's difficulty tweaks, getting the dozer to actually empty his KSP is a very tough affair that should not be actively attempted. With an ammo count of 200 rounds and a chance of spawning in pairs, they will almost always have enough ammo to take the entire crew down. * Bulldozers on their own cannot raise alarms. Those that can be encountered inside the trains cars and vaults on the Train heist cannot cause the police to arrive on scene, provided the crew deal with them silently, or have at least secured all personnel in the area. They can even be bodybagged if stealth has not been broken. * A headless variant of the Bulldozer replaces the IZHMA 12G variant exclusively during the Halloween event. He wields the IZHMA 12G, wears black armor, and has a sword lodged in his neck. This model appearance is no longer available due to the Halloween event having finished. ** These unique Bulldozers appear as the sole law enforcement opponents in the Safe House Nightmare Halloween special. ** Despite having a highly visible and equally exposed neck stump, it does not actually damage the Headless Bulldozer any more than shooting him in the body should one were to aim for that spot. * One can distinguish which type of Bulldozer it is depending on the suit. If a Bulldozer has a green suit he has a Reinfeld 880 shotgun, if he has black armor then he is equipped with a IZHMA 12G. * The Skulldozer is the only Death Wish enemy to appear in a lesser difficulty level, as a semi-random spawn during the first day of the Hoxton Breakout heist, if played on Overkill mode. * The Bulldozer is voiced by Mike Pollock, who voiced Dr. Eggman in the English audio versions of Sonic the Hedgehog videogames. However, the in-game credits states that PJ Stoppleworth was the voice actor, not Pollock. ** Despite what the credits says, Pollock is still credited for the role as seen on his IMDB and Wikipedia page. *If a Bulldozer is killed before his faceplate is shattered, it can still be broken by shooting his corpse. *The Bulldozer makes his live action debut in the Hoxton Breakout Trailer, where he ambushes Dallas and Wolf in the control room of the parking lot. He successfully incapacitates both, before being able to finish them off, Wolf recovers, after a struggle, Wolf Manages to kill him using a drill. **It is shown that the Bulldozer, whilst physically imposing, is actually impeded by the suit, having to turn sideways to get through doors, and being easily wrestled and thrown off balance by Wolf. Gallery Payday2 win32 release 2013-11-09 16-26-09-37.jpg|Front of the headless bulldozer. Payday2 win32 release 2013-11-09 16-26-06-65.jpg|Back of the headless bulldozer. 218620 screenshots 2013-11-10 00002.jpg|IZHMA 12G Bulldozer variant model. 2014-03-15 00004.jpg|IZHMA 12G from the Black Bulldozer with unobtainable Drum Mag. April Fools Titandozer.png|April Fools 2014, the "Titandozer". Skulldozer hires.PNG|The result of combined work between GenSec and SWAT: A LMG wielding bulldozer, the new face of the law. Bulldozer.png|A live-action Bulldozer in Hoxton Breakout Trailer faces off against Dallas after incapacitated Wolf. Category:Special enemies (Payday 2)